Brussels, 18/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the Commission moved closer to the appointment of current Commissioners to the new ones to which they will be "attached", following enlargement on 1 May for a six month transition period, during which the new Commissioners who will only have a limited cabinet and no individual portfolio. A number of directorates are not affected by the "twinning" of current and new Commissioners, such as competition (Monti), internal market (Bolkestein), environment (Wallström) and external relations (Patten). The spokesperson reiterated that the new Commissioners will not simply be "stagiaires" while waiting for the new Commission on 1 November and that they would be full members of the college with full participation in the activity and decision-making process. The spokesperson also reiterated that although the new Commissioners would not have any specific tasks they would be involved in the work of current Commissioners in an effort to facilitate their integration into the Commission's activities. President Prodi intends to invite designated Commissioners to an informal meeting in Brussels on 16 March for a general debate on "horizontal themes". Mr Prodi was said to be pleased to be able to work with his colleagues from the new Member States. The president declared that the exercise involved very experienced people with exceptional qualities. "I am certain that they will bring an active and positive contribution to the work of the current Commission. Their arrival and the recruitment of European civil servants from their countries will further enrich our administration, Mr Prodi added.
The list of the attached Commissioners are as follows (in the knowledge that president Prodi has reserved the right to "modify working methods if needs be"):
- Markos Kyprianou (Cyprus) - Michaele Schreyer (Budget); - Siim Kallas (Estonia) - Pedro Solbes (economic and monetary affairs); - Péter Balázs (Hungary) - Michel Barnier (regional and institutional policy); - Sandra Kalniete (Latvia) - Franz Fischler (Agriculture, fisheries and rural development); - Dalia Grybauskaite (Lithuania) - Viviane Reding (Education and culture); - Joe Borg (Malta) - Poul Nielson (Development and humanitarian aid); - Danuta Hübner (Poland) - Pascal Lamy (trade); - Ján Figel (Slovakia) - Erkki Liikanen (Enterprise and information society); - Janez Potocnik (Slovenia) - Günter Verheugen (enlargement); - Miloš Kuzvart (Czech Republic) - David Byrne (health and consumer protection).
A note from Mr Prodi on the "enlarged Commission's administrative provisions between 1 May and 31 October 2004" explains that the new Commissioners's cabinets will consist of three grade A officials; a head of cabinet (A2) and a deputy head of cabinet (A3). At least one of the grade A agents should be a current Commission agent and at least one should come from a Member State different to that of the Commissioner. In addition, each Commissioner will have four people working for them (assistants and secretaries), one grade B and a grade C, as well as a chauffeur (grade D). Mr Prodi's note also explains that the Permanent Representation of France to the EU will be organising intensive France courses for Commissioners, as well as for members of their cabinets, in order to ensure that thy have "at least a basic understanding" of the French language.
Commission prepares recruitment of senior managers from the new Member States
On Wednesday, the Commission also undertook a series of measures for the recruitment of senior officials from the ten new Member States. As with every previous enlargement, the Commission will be reserving a number of posts for nationals of new Member States. The Commission is, therefore, reserving for 2004 alone 8 posts at A1 level, 29 at A2 level and 83 at middle management level. These posts will be given to the best candidates, independent of their nationality, underlined the spokesperson, although the longer term policy of the Commission consists in making sure that there is at least on A 1 per new country. At Director-General level, the posts reserved are those of Director-General of the Joint Research Centre and of the newly created Information Technologies and TeleCommunications DG (currently a Directorate of DG Administration). At Deputy Director-General level, the posts reserved will be in DG Research, DG Employment, Eurostat, DG Trade, DG RELEX and DG Transport-Energy. At Director and Principle Advisor level, 19 recruitments are foreseen in various DGs in 2004. Heads of Commissioners' cabinets recruited from the new Member States will have a grade equivalent to that of a Director. At middle management level, 83 Heads of unit will be recruited in various DGs.
To prepare for these arrivals, a number of senior managers will change function. Mr Bonacci, DG of Aidco, will retire on 1 April 2004, at which point Mr Richelle, currently Director-General of DG Development, will be moved to this function. Mr Reichenbach, currently Director-General for Personnel and Administration, will replace Mr Mingasson in DG Enterprise on 1 October, date on which Mr Mingasson will become an "Hors Classe" advisor. Mr McSweeney, currently Director-General of the Joint Research Centre, will remain acting Director-General until his successor is appointed.
Mr Tilgenkamp, Deputy Director General at the DG for Agriculture, will become Adviser hors-classe on 15 September 2004 and will be entrusted with the task of facilitating integration by the new Member States in Common Agricultural Policy, before retiring on 1 August 2005. Mr Franchet, currently Adviser hors-classe, is to retire on 1 April this year. The Commission is to create posts of Chief Adviser in DGs External Relations, Health/Consumer Protection, Enterprise, Information Society, Taxation and Customs Union, Transport/Energy and the Environment.
The Commission has also decided to raise the level of its external presence to strengthen its representative functions and its management of assistance programmes in partner countries. This change mainly aims to ensure that the major decisions on management of aid are taken closer to home. Further to the decisions to nominate A1s to the posts of Head of Delegation in Washington, Geneva and Tokyo, a similar decision is now taken for the posts in Moscow, Beijing and New York/United Nations. Also, the post of Head of Representation in Vienna/United Nations, and those of Heads of Delegations in Indonesia, Nicaragua, Thailand, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco will be published at the A2 level.
In Washington, Mr Burghardt will finalise his tenure as Head of Delegation in autumn 2004, before retiring at the end of the year. The Commission considers it is desirable for the future Head of Delegation to have a political profile and to appoint a person on this basis.